Please provide me with the following detail per month for the period of January 2012 to the most recent month this year for which you have the data, preferably in Excel-compatile format, and in electronic format in any case:

(1) The list of NHS s136 suites, as defined in the the Mental Health Act (MHA), per borough covered by the trust.

(2) The list of NHS A&E departments, per borough covered by the trust.

(3) The breakdown, per s136 suite, of the number of days the s136 has been opened that month.

(4) The breakdown, per s136 suite and A& department, of the number of individuals detained under s136 of the MHA brought to each of the trust's s136 suites and A&E departments.

(5) The number of individuals detained under s136 of the MHA and admitted to hospital in the boroughs covered by the trust, following an MHA assessment.

(6) The breakdown, per s136 suite and A& department, by type of vehicle the individuals detained under s136 of the MHA were conveyed to that place of safety (i.e., ambulance, police vehicle, or other)

(7) The breakdown, per s136 suite and A& department, by gender of individuals detained under s136 of the MHA and conveyed to that place of safety.

(8) The breakdown, per s136 suite and A& department, by age range of individuals detained under s136 of the MHA and conveyed to that place of safety.

(9) The breakdown, per s136 suite and A& department, by ethnicity of individuals detained under s136 of the MHA and conveyed to that place of safety.

(10) The breakdown, per s136 suite and A& department, of whether individuals detained under s136 of the MHA and conveyed to that place of safety were considered to be suffering from the effects of drink or drugs

(11) The breakdown, per s136 suite and A& department, of whether individuals detained under s136 of the MHA and conveyed to that place of safety were restrained

I am thankful for receiving the response from Jessica Robson, and also surprised to learn that your Trust does not operate any s136 suite. However the response specified 'Within the Trust [...], the places of safety for Camden and Islington are University College London Accident and Emergency Department, Royal Free Accident and Emergency Department and the Whittington Accident and Emergency Department.'

As these three A&E departments are places of safety, monthly breakdowns 'per A&E department' should have been provided to my original questions (4), (6), (7), (8), (9), (10) and (11). A full answer to my original question (5) should also have been provided.

The exemption used is that you do not hold the information requested. As this would mean you don't hold data on MHA assessment and intake of s136 patients in your Trust, it would appear that my request was not read or understood correctly.

(Apols cant see original request as writing this so may be slightly off cte with some egs!)

Another way of asking this so that you are not bounced un-necessarily between the Trust, police , A&E's and LB Camden is to reframe the question asking how many MHA assessments were undertaken following admission to a s136 suite or any place of safety in the borough.This info they do hold.

Within this you can break it down eg, how many actual assessments completed,how many recommended for detention , how many times assessments deemed necessary but delayed due to eg intoxication/unfit to assess, how long ave wait on s136 before assessed, how many assessments done on people in s136 suites out of area.

Some figures can be cross correlated with Met Police and London Ambulance Service on the 3 s136 designated A&E's plus each hospital has figures on this aswell. Simply depends how far you want to go with this!

For the Trust FOI officer reading this : it would be really helpful to all ( including yourselves) to have a page on you website where all the FOI requests are recorded as some information requested may be enough for some enquirers or at least hone the question. Other Trusts do this. Am aware of C&I's reputation for defensiveness /secrecy but it would be a positive AND cost saving exercise

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With reference to your request for a review of your recent FOI request, I attach the Trust's response.
I sincerely apologise for the delay in responding, and do hope that you are happy with this response.
Yours sincerely,

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Dear Mr Mery
With reference to your email below requesting an internal review of your recent Freedom of Information request, I attach the Trust's response letter.
I apologise for the delay in responding to your request.

When you use the section 12 exemption you must explain your reasonable estimate. Also you must provide assistance under section 16 as to how the request may be limited to be answerable within the cost/time limitations.

You explained how the police must complete a form 434 when a police constable arrives in a place of safety with a person ‘detained’ under S136, however I am surprised you made no mention of the Section 136 Audit Form to be completed by the Bleep Holder/Nurse in Charge as described in the Trust joint policy on the use of section 136 of the Mental Health Act.

(For your information, the MPS do not tend to use custody suites as places of safety. During the calendar year 2012, only 1 man detained under MHA s136 was brought to a custody suite in Camden, and no one in Islington. More details at https://www.whatdotheyknow.com/request/d... )

As it is more than a month since the FoI breaches raised in my email dated 2 October 2013 have been apparently ignored, if I do not hear further from you on this matter next week, I will have no other choice than to raise a complaint with the ICO.

Please be advised that the Trust responded to your previous request for an internal review of your initial information request response on 27 September 2013 and as such, are not obligated to conduct a second internal review.

However, I would like to address your request for a breakdown regarding the cost limit in relation to your request for the number of individuals detained under s.136 of the MHA and admitted to the hospital in the boroughs covered by the trust, following an MHA assessment. Please be advised that, during the period of January 2012 and the date of your initial request, 29 July 2013, the trust had over 120 admissions. As the s.136 is not captured electronically within our systems, as such, an electronic search cannot be carried out by the trust. Therefore, the Trust would need to conduct a manual search of each patient record, which would far exceed 24 hours, for 1 person at a cost of £25 per hour.

In regards to your statement regarding the s 136 procedure, please be advised that, as stated to you in our response on 23 August 2013 and also in our response to your request for an internal review on 27 September, the s.136 procedure is invoked by the police. As such, any questions you have regarding this procedure, would be better directed to the police, accordingly.

I hope you are satisfied with this response to your request for an internal review.

Thank you for this response. I note that in this response you have managed to find a partial (i.e., not monthly as requested) answer to my question 5). Information that you had not provided either in your original response or review.

This Trust has just failed the most recent CQC inspection in October 2013 and has been ordered to provide details of compliance by November 13th 2013.
The report can be accessed on the CQC website under St Pancras Hospital. It states concerns that many of us have been raising for a very long time and the Trust has ignored